“No sheep farms?” she asked, curious. “I saw so many sheep as we traveled through Yorkshire. I bet sheep love the heather, which grows here so abundantly. And wool is probably just as profitable as coal.”
“How would you know about sheep?”
“I don’t know much about them. My father owns sheep farms, but he certainly doesn’t run them.”
“I don’t want to hear about your family.”
She sighed to herself before she handed him the new bandage and went to wash the salve off her fingers. She had intended to offer to read to him today after discovering a wonderful collection of books in the library. But he would probably rather spend time with his harlot while she was here. Then Brooke blanched when it occurred to her that the woman might have been his fiancée instead of his mistress, in which case Brooke’s behavior went beyond the pale.
“Were you otherwise engaged?” she blurted out as she came back to his bedside.
“Engaged in what?”
“To marry someone else? Is that why you’re so dead set against us?”
“There is no ‘us.’?”
If he prevaricated once more, she might growl in frustration. Being absolutely direct this time, she said, “Wereyou engaged to marry Lady Highley?”
“No, Priscilla likes London society too much to be a good wife for me. She’s just one of my many mistresses.”
“Many? How many do you keep at one time?”
He shrugged offhandedly. “However many it takes to satisfy me—usually two or three.”
Her mouth dropped open, but only for a moment. This was obviously just another of his attempts to scare her off—itbetterjust be that. She decided to play along instead, pretending to be curious. “One at a time or all at once?”
He looked surprised, and also as if he might laugh, but didn’t. “That’s an interesting notion. But as to your original question, I wasn’t committed, but once I put your brother in the ground, I intended to begin courting my neighbor Elspeth Shaw.”
The sound of truth in that statement made Brooke feel horrible. She remembered that it had occurred to her in Leicestershire that he might be in love with someone else. Yet she remembered Gabriel’s telling her, too, that Dominic was the last Wolfe to carry the name and wanted to keep it that way. Which didn’t mean he wouldn’t marry, only that he didn’t want to sire children. But if that was so, she had a right to know, didn’t she? Especially since shedidwant children eventually.
“So you intended to marry, but never to touch your wife?”
His brows snapped together. “Where the devil do you get such ideas?”
Her cheeks went a little pink. Had Gabriel lied to her? But she shouldn’t have asked! It implied that the thought of their never sharing a bed might worry her for reasons other than children.
She quickly explained, “It was a logical question. Gabriel told me that you wanted to be the last of your line.”
Dominic snorted. “That was a notion I shared with him one night long ago when I was deep in my cups. I wasn’t aware he thought I was serious.”
“Then you weren’t?”
“I was, but for barely a week. It was a silly notion, wrought from—”
She wondered why he didn’t finish, but guessed, “Because of the curse?”
He gave her a calculating look for a moment. “No, because of the ridicule those rumors generated after they reached London. The young bucks in that town found it amusing to howl like wolves whenever they passed me on the street. Didn’t know what you were actually marrying into, did you?”
He seemed pleased to be able to add that. She felt like snorting. One day she would laugh at the way he was drawing every card from the deck to push her away. She didn’t doubt he’d just told her an absurd whopper and decided to call him on it.
“No one would dare do that to you, as feral as you look when you’re angry. They’d be terrified you’d kill them on the spot. So what really made you want to end your line, even if you only felt that way for a mere week?”
He stared at her for a long moment. Shedidjust call him a liar, she realized belatedly. Maybe she should be running from the room...
But then he admitted, “Because my sister had just died and I was full of despair, with no hope for the future. But now revenge against your brother brightens my future.”
Now that she could believe. She waited for him to ask her to leave again, because that would complete his revenge, stripping her family of everything. Or would only Robert’s death satisfy him?
